Pirate Cove Drake Bay

... before we saw anyone else, these were some Canadians that were making their way back from the Serena ranger station, and two Belgian guys that we had met the previous day, they had camped at La Leona Ranger Station the previous night as they had a tent. We ended up walking the rest of the way with them, stopping on the beach for lunch along the way. The hike is made up of beach walks and jungle walks. The beach walks, whilst a little cooler due to less humidity, are more strenuous ...

... But we had to leave early if we wanted to see wildlife. I had
my breakfast at 5:30.

Anyway, the boat ride took like an hour and a half - it was rainy and
really choppy. I wonder how much worse they could have went out in?
Clearly it's not called the pacific because it is not peaceful! We arrived
via water to the beach. It reminded me of something out of Jurassic
park. The entire beach was moving ...

... a long, uphill and downhill journey. After checking in we went to see what our dorm was like. Well no 5-star luxury here... two sets of bunk-beds with thin, hard mattresses and no pillows or sheets (although we did know about the lack of the latter so had brought our own). But the dorms do have a shared bathroom with a shower, which although cold, is a better option than bathing in the river along with crocodiles and sharks! Surprisingly, there is electricity here, albeit ...

... difficulties. Because of this it has stayed affordable to the eager budget traveler who chooses to get to the park the hard way -- alone and on foot. Undoubtedly, this meant it would be our first major destination in CR. Dubbed one of the most bio-diverse places on the planet by National Geographic Magazine a few years back and summed up in more quantitative terms, the park protects more than 400 species of birds, 116 reptiles and amphibians, 139 mammals and overall represents ...

... with everyone sitting at the same long table. Lots of talk about where everyone is from, what they're been doing, how long they are here, what they've seen and so on. Tuesday we did a snorkel tour to the nearby Caņo Island. Jinetes is also HQ for Costa Rica Adventure Divers, but we'd heard from others that they diving wasn't so good at the moment - lots of current and bad vis. Reports over the week were pretty much the same, so we didn't do any diving here. On the snorkel ...

... salvajes..... en fin un sin fin de peligros que os juramos que se nos puso el culillo apretado en mas de una ocasion. En el parque nos acompaņo Wilbert, hombre de pocas palabras de dia y demasiadas de noche... No podeis imaginar el coņazo que nos dio entre cerveza y cerveza... Solo decia: Soy del Madrid hasta la Ostia!!! Marcha! Marcha! Tio Ostia! Os gusta la musica!! Menudo enfermo mental el tal Wilbert!!! No ...

... after 1am. The garden and small pool were wonderful; the non-stop electronic music was dreadful! There was a communal kitchen and so I cooked all my own meals and so didn't have to worry about going out after dark to eat (dark at 6pm) - San Jose not being the safest of cities. My evening entertainment was either a film on TV (me? yes, really!) or on several occasions fire dancing accompanied by drummers by the pool. I made an attempt to set up Spanish conversation ...

... because we had to bring up all of our own food and it is friggin' hot here. Geraldine became quite sick within an hour of reaching the top and spent most of the day swaying desconsolately in a hammock. La Bolita was beautiful. It is perched on the top of a hill in the rainforest, and we could just make out the sea in the distance. On the first day, Daniel and I went for a two hour hike into the forest. On the second day, the four of us ...

... the same park I went to earlier in the summer. It was a new guide though, and we went a different route, so I have a great time. I went with 2 crazy German guys staying here for the week, but we had a lot of fun. Hiking with 3 boys was...interesting. Somehow the boys thought it would be a good idea to cross 3 rivers by jumping across slipperey rocks and even one time, a broken tree. Oh boys... This time we saw tons of animals though, including 3 different types of ...

... I was so angry at all of them. They were talking and weren't understanding, nor were they trying. After class, when I had decided it was the worst class of life, a girl came up to me and said how much she loves Engilsh class. It is moments like that which remind me why I am here. This weekend I spent just around the town, there´s really no where else to go because of the need for boats. But I am enjoying spending time around here. I went for a long walk ...